Surgical tools, which are inserted into a handpiece, are known in various embodiments. The handpieces are usually connected to a drive, so that the tools or partial areas of the surgical tools can be driven, e.g., set into rotation. Such surgical tools may be designed, for example, as tools for minimally invasive endoscopy, especially in the area of the spine.
It is known from the state of the art, e.g., from DE 10 2006 062 421 A1, that such a handpiece is provided with a central hole or recess, into which a coupling area or attachment area of the surgical tool is inserted. Corresponding drive couplings of the handpiece now come to mesh with coupling parts of the surgical tool, so that rotary drive is achieved. The surgical tool is inserted into and locked in a handpiece by the handpiece being provided with a tool mount, with which a locking element of the surgical tool can be caused to detachably mesh. Such a locking element may be designed, for example, in the form of a ring groove. The counterpiece of the locking element to the ring groove within the tool mount may be designed, for example, in the form of a hook, balls or the like. When inserting the surgical tool into the handpiece, locking or coupling can thus take place, which prevents the surgical tool from becoming accidentally separated from the handpiece during use. To remove the surgical tool from the handpiece, for example, an actuating means, e.g., a button or a slide, is to be actuated.
To guarantee optimal coupling between the surgical tool and drive, coupling parts in the form of grooves or cams, which mesh with a counterpiece of the drive, are formed at the end of the surgical tool. Such a coupling is known from DE 69 622 563 T2, wherein a surgical instrument has a quick-action coupling, which comprises a plug-in connection in the manner of a bayonet catch and a coupling pin proximally from the tool to be inserted.
However, the devices known from the state of the art often have a complicated design, are correspondingly costly, their manufacture is complicated and they often can be operated poorly under surgical conditions of use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,263 shows a surgical instrument with a hand piece and tool with a double coupling mechanism, in which, however, a slide must be shifted simultaneously for inserting the tool in order to make the insertion of the tool possible at all. Such a double connection movement is a drawback and is undesired in the corresponding operating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,493, which is likewise of this class, likewise shows a surgical element, in which, however, the uncoupling mechanism at the tool is designed in the form of an actuating element. This makes the tool, on the one hand, complicated and expensive and thus it cannot be formed as a disposable tool; on the other hand, a difficult cleaning and disinfection possibility arises as a result of this and precisely in a multi-usable tool, which is connected with risks for the patient.
Finally, EP 1 880 683 shows a surgical element not of this class, in which a tool can be connected at an intermediate part, on the one hand, by a transversely insertable cross pin (which can get lost), and, on the other hand, a drive element can be inserted at the opposite end at best in a frictionally engaged, but not positive locking manner and thus these parts lie open jointly as rotary parts over the entire length, such that such an element can be used in an open cavity, such as a dental element in the oral cavity, with certainty but not as a surgical element through body openings, especially in minimally invasive procedures.